Ivy stayed off on Friday. Timothy was out from the hospital so he gave her the day off today. Stef also had the day off. Normally she worked on a Friday but she was asked to switch shifts with another policemen. In the morning, Ivy was greeted by Mariana as she came out of the bathroom in the house. Ivy yelped and then sighed rubbing her forehead "Mariana"

"Sorry!"

"What's up munchkin? Why are you waiting outside the door and why are you smiling me like that" Mariana continued to have the same wide smile on her face, Ivy scrunched her up at it and shook her head, she mumbled "Stop it"

"Will you please do my hair for me? I just got out of the shower and..."

"Don't you usually do your own hair, my sweet sweet...fifteen year old cousin"

Mariana sighed and rolled her eyes "Yes but I like the wavy thing you do with your hair and I want to try it out"

"Shouldn't you have asked me this last night instead of..." Ivy looked at her watch "An hour before you need to go to school" she then looked up to Mariana again. Mariana nodded and then said with a sympathetic look on her face "Yeah...but you were crying a lot last night, you spent the whole night with Mom and Jesus for a bit too"

"Oh...right...I'm sorry, baby, of course I'll do your hair, come on" Ivy nudged Mariana to her and Callie's bedroom.

As Ivy was doing Mari's hair, Mariana looked at Ivy from looking in the mirror "Are you and Nate going to be okay?"

Ivy then looked into the mirror to look at Mariana, she shrugged "Hopefully, but it did kind of really come to blows and we haven't spoke since"

"It was really bad?"

"Y'know, the topic was just very sensitive and that got me angry then me getting angry at him makes him angry at me, you know how I can be, Mari, I have a short fuse, I get mad easily"

"Yeah we know, I remember when Brandon stole your drink from the burger shack that time and you ended up throwing him in the sand"

"I like to drink!" Ivy quickly defended herself "Yeah and now instead of milkshake it's?..."

"Rum"

"Seriously?"

Ivy nodded "Jamaican Rum" Mariana pulled a disgusted face "Well that or beer" she then shrugged. Beer sounded better.

Mariana looked down at her hands "I really want you to be happy" Ivy stopped doings Mari's hair and looked at her through the mirror. She tilted her head and then whispered "You don't have to worry about me"

"I get scared for you, you've been hurt so many times...I've seen the way you are with Callie too, you guys relate to each other more than we do anymore, you guys have been through the same stuff"

"Hey hey hey" Ivy shook her head to Mariana as she wrapped her arms around her "It's not like that, Mari, I've been spending so much time with Callie because I've been doing my best to get to know her, I've known you all my life, I've known Callie for almost three months now"

"You were out of my life for six years...a lot of stuff has happened"
Ivy then felt a huge weight of guilt placed on her. Mariana was right. Stuff had happened. And Ivy hadn't even noticed that she had been gone and that she had missed a big chunk of Mariana's life. Ivy kissed Mariana's head "You're right, I'm sorry...I'm sorry you've felt like I've been only spending time with Callie, it was not my intention to make you feel like I haven't been spending time with you too, tell you what, today is the last day before you guys get a week off, I promise you that we will plan a girls day, okay?"

"You mean it"

"Of course I do...Te amo con todo mi corazón, ¿de acuerdo? (I love you with all my heart, okay?)"

"Yo también te quiero (I love you too)"

Ivy smiled and then gave her a peck on her head and then rubbed Mariana's arms "Your hair looks great, you look beautiful" Ivy smiled brightly to Mariana with her new beach wavy hair style.

Ivy went downstairs to the kitchen where she found Stef with a cup of coffee in one had and her newspaper in the other. Stef looked up, she took off her glasses and put down her newspaper "How are you, my love?"

"I'm fine, honest I am"

"I know I was hard on Nate the other day, I said things to you last night too that may have...tried to put you off" Ivy then looked up to Stef, she looked at her surprised. She did not know that was Stef's intention last night.

"Why?" Ivy asked in a surprised tone as she stood at the table. Stef bit her lip and then stood up. She put her hands in her jean pockets and shrugged. She struggled on what to say "I guess...look, you've always been my first baby girl, I get protective, I guess I just didnt like you having a first real fight with your boyfriend because I realised that it was getting serious...I'm just not ready to let you go"

"You're not letting me go, I'm going no-where"

"You say that now" Stef shrugged again.

"Oh my god...this is like the song slipping through my fingers" Mariana mumbled as she stood before them.. Ivy and Stef looked at each other confused, they then turned their heads to Mariana. There was a long silence before Ivy then broke that silence "What?"

Mariana rolled her eyes and laughed "You've seen Mamma Mia, right?"

"Mari you know we both have, we went to the cinemas to go see it together"

"Yeah yeah, anyway you remember the song Slipping Through My Fingers? With Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried...before she gets married"

Ivy and Stef raised their heads and then dropped them to look at each other. Mariana nodded "That's just like you too because you feel Ivy is slipping through your fingers" Stef looked at Ivy and realized that it was infact what she was thinking "Even though she's not...mom you're Meryl Streep"

Stef then laughed and looked back to Mariana. "I wish I was, now go on, mama is waiting outside with the rest of them you don't wanna be late"

Mariana nodded and gave her dazzling smile, she turned and walked away "By the way I love your hair!" Stef called. "Thanks mom!"

Stef and Ivy were then silent for a moment. Stef then looked to Ivy and nudged her with her shoulder "Hey"

Ivy looked at Stef "What?" she said softly. "Wanna stuff our faces whilst watching Mamma Mia?"

She laughed and then nodded "Absolutely"

Jesus did his best all day to avoid Hayley. He had been doing well so far, it had been almost two hours into school and he hadn't seen Hayley once. He was so angry about what she had said to Ivy the other day and also the trouble she caused for Ivy. If it wasn't for her and her little games, then Ivy and Nate wouldn't have had that argument, and they'd still be speaking right now instead of neither of them knowing where to go from what they did and the things that they had said. He was so angry that he slammed his locker very hard to get out even a fraction for his frustration. Lena always tells him it's better to take it out on something than someone.

When he turned a corner. He bumped into Hayley. She was like a rash. You couldn't get rid of her...unless you use cream. But he doubts that would get rid of her. "Hey baby" Hayley went to place her hand on his neck to stroke it. Jesus knocked his head back to avoid her touch.

"What's wrong?"

"Don't act so ridiculous" Jesus snarled in a whisper as he walked past her, further down the hall way to get to his next lesson. But obviously she went after him.

"Jesus wait! I don't understand" Jesus then stopped, he slowly turned with his face scrunched up. Not really understanding if she was being serious or if she was trying to make him feel sorry for her. Which defiantly wasn't working. "Are you being serious Hayley? You think you can just stand there acting all innocent when you know full well the problems you caused for my cousin after that stunt you pulled yesterday? I am your boyfriend who you claim to love, had to hold one of the most important women in my life in my arms last night as she cried because she thought that she had totally screwed things up with the guys she loves, and I really don't think you get that she loves him, my mom didn't know what to do with herself because she hated seeing Ivy cry the way she was crying, all because you and your stupid little game, not only that but you humiliated her!"

"Shouldn't you be standing by me right now? Your cousin was being a bitch" that was it. That's what made him snap. He bit his lip and fisted the back of his hair to try and not hit something. Jesus shook his head and mumbled in a very stern tone "That's it, I'm done"

"What?"

"I am done! I am so sick of you talking crap about my family, whether it's my sisters, mothers and now my cousin, I have bit my lip for too long, I put up with you because I'm a nice guy and I know how upset you get, but screw it I'm done"

"Wait, hold on what are you saying?" Hayley began to panic

"I'm saying I'm breaking up with you"

"But-but Jesus-" Jesus held up his hand, to signal that he had heard enough.

"This is because of Emma! And I know it is"

"What in God's name are you even saying right now?" Jesus said now being stressfully confused. "I saw you walking home with her yesterday"

Jesus took a deep breath to try and control his temper, he didn't want to lose his cool. "Emma, is my friend but that's not even the reason she walked home with us she's in Mariana's math class, they were talking about math together I barely even got a word in, and I don't have to explain myself to you, especially not anymore so do me a favor, leave me and my family alone" With those words. He left Hayley, with tears streaming down her cheek.

Everyone came home, school had finished and they all had a week off. Everyone came home apart from Callie, she had group straight after school today. Mariana, Jude and Brandon came in, in a good mood. Ivy saw Jesus trail in behind them, looking rather angry. Brandon turned and saw what Ivy was looking at, he folded her arms and informed her "Ah yeah, he finished Hayley today"

Ivy raised her eyebrows and looked to Brandon "Seriously?"

Brandon nodded and glanced to her "In front of literally everyone, he just had enough I guess, anyway I'm sure you and mom are thrilled" he went to walk away, Ivy then said "Was that a dig?"

"No, but come on you are"

Ivy looked to Brandon "Well aren't you?"

Brandon shrugged and laughed. They both turned away from each other and thought the exact same thing 'Did we just get along?'

Ivy shrugged it off and waited for Jesus to walk to her "Hey buddy"

"He told you"

Ivy did a one nod "Yep, he told me"

"You're glad, huh" Jesus said with a little smile, Ivy laughed and pushed him a little "So are you, you've been waiting for weeks to get rid of her"

Jesus went to objectify to Ivy's comment. But when he saw Ivy with her arms folded and her left eyebrow raised at him, almost begging him to try and come up with some sort of way to tell Ivy she was wrong, but when he knew she was in fact right, he just laughed. Then took her by surprise by pulling her in for a fond embrace, Ivy placed her hands on his back, confused. When Jesus let go of her, he then kissed her forehead. Again this took Ivy by surprise.

"So, how've you been doing today?" Oh, now she got it. He was being comforting and protective. "I'm absolutely fine"

Ivy then heard the back door close, Jesus dropped his hands from her and pulled a warm smile "I think someone wants to talk to you" Jesus nudged her forward and then went upstairs, leaving her alone. Ivy slowly walked over into the kitchen. To see no-one. She did, however, find a mug on the kitchen table. A new mug to be exact, she knew who it was from. It wasn't rocket science to know it was from Nate, after all she had been complaining for a new one since her other ones handle was falling off day by day. It was normal height but was rather large, width wise. It was a shiny black and had the following quite on it in a white comic sans font 'Do not annoy the writer, she may put you in her book and kill you'

Ivy couldn't help but smirk, she noticed a note inside the mug. The note then said 'Am I killed off yet?' she knew even more it was Nate. The note was written by his crappy handwriting. She looked outside into the garden and saw him sat there, she couldn't leave him hanging. Well she could but that would just be cruel. Ivy opened the door and slowly walked out, sitting next to him. They didn't even look at each other, Nate took a deep breath and rubbed his hands together, looking down at the ground. And Ivy was just looked out at the garden. There was a long pause.

Ivy spoke "...So"

I really mean it about Slipping Through My Fingers, if you guys are still wanting to picture the background of Stef and Ivy's relationship then listen to that song (Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried version) Please leave reviews. What do you think Ivy and Nate should get off their chests to each other? And as I always want, please don't be hateful.